NPR: Video Games Recession Proof?
With the Wii selling over 2 million last month and with rumors of the Wii selling over 1 million the second week in December, it seems like video games have not shown any signs of slowing down. Is the video games the only business that is recession proof? Maybe we should tell Free Radical this.
In today’s “All Tech Considered” piece, we talked about the video game industry and where it’s going. According to the industry’s trade group, the Entertainment Software Association, the games industry took in $9.5 billion in 2007 and, judging from holiday sales, it will surpass that in 2008. In November, game sales grew to $2.64 billion in the U.S., a 10 percent increase from 2007.
Leading the pack is the Nintendo Wii, the diminumtive, $250 game console that launched in November 2006 and took living rooms by storm. As of November, Nintendo had sold 15.4 million systems in the U.S. (2 million in November alone) and appears poised to again dominate holiday sales.
Why is that? Nintendo has expanded the definition of a gamer. Rather than offer high-definition graphics or the latest game technology, Nintendo opted for a simpler, lower-priced game console that would return the emphasis to having fun and would expand the audience for games to people who might not otherwise play games. It’s worked remarkably well. Nintendo is running the table against Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s beleaguered PlayStation 3 console.
